


Shin Zesshou Mazingear ZERO

by Gamer50018, solopy567



Category: Mazinger Z, Senki Zesshou Symphogear
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fusion, Apocalypse, Character Death, Crossover, F/F, F/M, Gen, Mecha, Suffering, Time Travel
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-12
Updated: 2020-07-12
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:01:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,773
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25225057
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gamer50018/pseuds/Gamer50018, https://archiveofourown.org/users/solopy567/pseuds/solopy567
Summary: The world has ended, destroyed by a powerful being beyond imagining. The hapless traveler, who has done all she can to save her loved ones, despairs over her repeated failures. However, a simple whim brings her face to face with a mysterious relic, the first and only of its kind she has ever seen. Due to its mysterious power, she meets a brave group of warriors, clad in magnificent armor and wielding the power of song.And with that chance meeting, she hopes to change the fate of the world, and bring down the beast that threatens it once and for all.You can read this story even if you don't know anything about Mazinger Z. Don't let the unfamiliarity hold you back!
Relationships: Kabuto Kouji/Sayaka Yumi, Kohinata Miku/Tachibana Hibiki
Comments: 3
Kudos: 13





	Shin Zesshou Mazingear ZERO

The world has ended.

The great cities of mankind, the lush forests of the Amazon, and the endless blue oceans no longer existed in this world. As if it had been driven back to the days of its primordial chaos, all that remained of the planet Earth and its diverse ecosystems was a blazing inferno.

Cities turned to dust, forests burned, and the oceans dried. None of the striking features of the pale blue dot remained even for alien civilizations to discover.

For human civilization was wiped out without a trace.

And the being who had done so… was a manmade god.

No, it would be more accurate to call it a Demon God, a god that surpasses all gods. A creation that overturned all logic, an existence that defies the natural law. Monstrous beyond all belief, and more powerful than any being in the known universe, it was unstoppable.

Invincible.

It alone remained, raining death and hellfire upon the ruined world. Every blast, greater than the mightiest of volcanic eruptions. Every storm it unleashed, more violent than even the most vicious of typhoons.

It stood above and beyond nature itself, bending the very fabric of existence to its will.

It was everything and it was nothing. It was born from Zero and to Zero it shall return.

However, somehow, one person remained. A man wearing a suit and a mask that protected him from the elements looked upon the destruction with unbound grief.

"Damn it. Damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it, damn it!" he swore and cursed with labored breaths. "If only I'd gotten in...! If only I'd gotten in!"

His despair was insurmountable. His overwhelming sense of failure crippled him. He was far too late to change anything, to save anything or anyone. Of humanity's six billion souls, only this young man remained.

Everything he had known and loved vanished in the blink of an eye.

And he could only blame himself, for it was his hesitation that led to the Demon God's awakening. He fell to his hands and knees, pounding his knuckles against the charred earth in his frustration.

"Is that so?"

The cool, unfamiliar voice tore him from his turbulent thoughts. He immediately jumped to his feet, swiftly turning around to face the stranger he could not believe existed. His eyes fell upon a beautiful woman with platinum hair, wearing a form-fitting suit that clung tightly to her frame.

"Wha—!" He exclaimed in shock. "There shouldn't be anyone left but me!"

That wasn't the only part of her that surprised him. Aside from her somewhat alien appearance, the biggest source of confusion was the fact that her face was uncovered. The air had long been impossible to breathe, and yet she stood there, unfazed at all by the raging gales that buffeted the area around them.

However, it was the look in her eyes that gave him pause. As he met her gaze, he could only see somber resignation, as if the woman before him had long surrendered to whatever destiny had in store for her. It was a sad, broken stare, one that he had not seen on anyone he had ever known.

Tearing his gaze away from her face, he studied her form, and his eyes fell upon a strange emblem below her breasts.

_Minerva X._

That was what was written upon it, and nothing else. Briefly, he felt that it was somewhat familiar, yet he could not place where he had seen it before.

"If you had gotten in," the woman suddenly said. "If you had gotten in, what would you have done?"

The two looked to the skies, only barely catching sight of the Demon God's frame high up in the Earth's atmosphere.

"I'd have used it for justice," he answered honestly.

A brief silence descended between the two, with only the whispers of the wind to accompany them.

"I wonder if that's true," she said in response.

"Of course it is!" he exclaimed defiantly.

His declaration once more caused the woman to lapse into silence. She looked to him, seeing the resolve in his expression and his words.

And just for a brief moment, she flashed a small smile.

"I know," she answered, causing him to look at her in puzzlement. "I trust you."

She raised her hand, holding it in front of her lips, and muttered a soft pair of words.

"Rust Hurricane."

The young man didn't even have the time to verbalize his shock. A veritable storm of corrosive wind erupted from the woman's mouth, engulfing him entirely.

Without even being able to defend himself, or wonder what she had done, his body disintegrated to dust.

"Now be reborn," she murmured sadly. "Along with the hopes of mankind."

The ashes that remained, along with her words brimming with hope were carried away by the breeze, leaving no trace of their existence behind.

And the woman remained alone, staring at the spot he had stood upon with tears in her eyes.

The solemn silence once again descended upon the ruined world. The emblem on her stomach carrying her name dimmed as the power she had channeled settled down once more.

Minerva thought she was used to this conclusion already. Used to the heartbreak that came with failing again and again, repeated two thousand, seven hundred and ninety six times so far. The death of the world was akin to a lifelong companion by now; an inevitability that she could never escape from.

Had she been anyone else, she'd have long fallen into despair and lost herself forever. Yet, she could not allow herself to. The pledge she had made and the people she vowed to save would not allow her to give up, no matter how many times she had failed.

The Demon God's emergence was a fact sealed into the very fabric of existence, that much she had already figured. Yet no matter what she did to defy that fate, it had always reared its ugly head one way or another.

The only option left for her now was to simply try again. Go back to the time it had all begun, and once more attempt to prevent the unavoidable end.

Normally, she'd have already used her unique ability to do so, but right now a simple whim kept her from doing so. Left alone in this wasteland of a world, Minerva walked with only the beastly roars of the Demon God in the heavens to keep her company.

The lethal wind buffeted at her frame, yet she felt none of it. Her unique physiology allowed her to brave nearly everything that nature, altered or otherwise, could throw at her. Truly, she was beyond logic just as the Demon God was.

If only she was a fraction as powerful as it was. Oh, what she would've done to have even a tiny bit of that mind-boggling strength. Perhaps then she'd have been able to make a difference.

It is said, however, that simple whims are sometimes what make the most meaningful change.

With no real destination in mind, Minerva walked aimlessly. Eventually, her feet brought her to an unfamiliar facility, reduced to nothing just like everything else. Bored, she studied it, not at all expecting to find anything of consequence.

That was when she noticed a hidden trap door, buried under a pile of rubble that had fallen on top of it. She tilted her head at the peculiar find, and following along with her whim, decided to humor herself and examine it. She approached the giant fallen slab of rock, effortlessly lifting it and tossing it aside, clearing the way. With one hand, she lifted the hatch, the rusty steel creaking and groaning as it moved for the first time in a long while.

Minerva looked into the dark depths, realizing that a light source was going to be impossible to find. No matter, she said to herself, she didn't need one anyway. Deciding to not waste her energy, she turned around and climbed down the ladder, somewhat appreciating the eerie silence the underground brought along with it. She didn't hear the Demon God's roars for a change.

After a minute of climbing, she finally reached the bottom. She looked forward into the unlit hallway, the power source for the lights obviously already depleted since the apocalypse. Curious as to what secrets this dungeon could contain, she walked forward, her feet clanging against the metal floor with metronome-like precision.

Eventually, she reached the obvious obstacle: a gigantic, reinforced steel door, made to protect whatever secret it beheld. While she could tear it down fairly easily with her abilities, she could potentially damage whatever lay within, so instead she scanned the lower half of the door, seeking any possible panel or powerline she could find.

It didn't take her very long. Finding her query to the left of the giant gate, she approached the panel, surprised to find it still operational despite the seeming lack of power.

An additional generator within, then. Well, that was beneficial to her. If the machinery worked, it could be bypassed.

It seemed the lock required a nine digit code, an eye scan, and an access card with the proper clearance. Not bad, she figured. A three-fold authentication matrix that'd make it incredibly difficult if not impossible for intruders to open the gate should they get this far.

Well, she wasn't any normal intruder... not that she could be considered one anyway. The facility was abandoned, its last occupants most likely having perished from starvation. She had to give it to the architects; the underground was sturdy enough to withstand the destruction on the surface.

It didn't even take her a single minute. Having successfully hacked her way through security, she was granted the all-green. As the door slowly opened, she idly wondered what the owners of the facility considered important enough to lock behind such intense security.

As soon as she entered, she found her answer. A massive, transparent cylinder occupied the room's centre, surrounded by complex instrumentation and terminals that illuminated its every corner. However, it was what lay within that caught her eye.

A teal colored object glowing with green light and shaped somewhat like a conch shell, with gold along the edges of its ridges and red spikes poking from its surface, completed by a strange orb - almost like an eye - in its centre. It hovered in thin air at the center of the cylinder, suspended by forces she couldn't quite pinpoint. Minerva stared, searching through her memory banks, yet no results returned for her query. This was the first time she had ever seen this strange device whose origins eluded her.

Curious, she approached the console by the cylinder. Easily hacking through the security again, she commanded the systems to tell her the history of the strange anomaly.

Comprehending an amount of data in milliseconds that would require a human hours to review, her search finally bore fruit. She found that the object, or Relic as it was called in the records, had been found in an archaeological dig site by the organisation that operated the facility, the name of which had been mysteriously absent in said records. When it was discovered, it already possessed the strange glow it emitted, and scans identified a unique energy signature no scientific records in Japan had ever encountered before.

Shockingly, this energy was not that which powered the Demon God, though it was somewhat similar, but seemed to be related to sound waves in some manner. The facility was constructed to examine the artifact, and discover both the technology of its construction and its purpose, but research was not yet completed when the Demon God arose. The scientists were forced to abandon their efforts in a doomed effort to survive, but the final log entry seemed to indicate the head of the project believed the Relic's power source could potentially rival that of the Demon God.

Yet it was the last piece of information she discovered that befuddled her the most: the Relic's name.

Gjallarhorn.

She blinked. The records did not indicate exactly what it was, so she searched through her memory banks once more.

' _Gjallarhorn, Old Norse for hollering horn. A horn associated with the Nordic God Heimdall and the wise sage Mimir. It is said its blast can be heard throughout all the realms, and that it can summon the Bifr_ _öst, the rainbow bridge that connects Midgard and Asgard.'_

This discovery made her curious. What exactly did a mythological horn have to do with defeating the Demon God? What sort of power could it possibly contain? There were so many new questions, yet no answers. The scientists had passed before they could provide them, and so she was ultimately left in the dark about what it could possibly be.

However, it was still a fruitful find. Minerva nodded, her curiosity satisfied. Her whim, it seemed, had been at least somewhat informative. Perhaps next time she could study the Relic in further detail and see if the head researcher's hunch was accurate. But as much as she wished to do so now, it would be a waste of time. This world was doomed as it was, and would not remain around long enough for her to glean any useful information.

Turning, she activated her unique power. Her core lit up, and the world was briefly illuminated in golden light.

But then, she heard it.

Yes, a sound! A rising, whirring alarm, that filled the air with its strident song! A sound that, as Minerva turned in surprise, came from the Relic! As if working in tandem with her own, the artifact's own power began to activate. It clashed with her own light, and for a moment, she found herself overwhelmed by the magnitude of its presence.

That was until she was shaken out of her stupor by the Demon God's monstrous roar. The sheer volume of its bellow rocked the very foundations of the Earth, sending violent tremors through the mantle that caused massive earthquakes to tear it apart. The facility, having held itself together through a sheer miracle, finally reached its limit.

The metal walls caved in, and giant chunks of debris rained down upon the abandoned lab. The exit was quickly sealed by the pile-up of rocks, and electricity arced in all directions from the machinery coming loose from their positions. Yet, Gjallarhorn remained unperturbed, maintaining its activated state despite the destruction around it.

Minerva realized that the Demon God had most likely sensed the relic's activation, and was in a hurry to destroy it. High up in the sky, the Demon God let out a mighty scream, and its chest began to burn with wild, infinite energy, gathering the strength to blast the facility and the relic it housed to kingdom come!

Minerva had already felt this sensation many times before, the overwhelming, incomprehensible power that would swallow her whole. Sending one last look at the mysterious relic, her power finally activated. The photons carrying her knowledge, memory, and thoughts were quickly ejected from her body, tearing open the hole in space-time as they began making their usual journey to the past.

And just as they vanished, the facility was engulfed in hellfire. Minerva's eyes closed as both she and Gjallarhorn were vaporized into nothingness, her last thoughts in this timeline filled with the same melancholic hope she had carried with her through countless repetitions.

-!-

_The space-time tunnel. Many scientists would claim it was nothing but a mathematical concept. A hypothetical layer of the universe that gives it its four-dimensional manifold._

_In truth, they would be right and wrong simultaneously. It is a tunnel, and yet, it is not. It is instantaneous, and similarly, infinite. It stretched onwards for eternity, yet could be travelled instantaneously. In the end, humanity would never truly know what it is._

_Only one being had ever stepped foot within this tunnel, or rather, their existence was crystallized into a collection of photons that were granted the key to access its secrets._

_Minerva's entire existence lay within those microscopic particles. Their usual route through the tunnel was a simple one: akin to a sphere, whose surface they danced upon and moved through in the opposite direction, akin to fighting the hands of a clock._

_However, this time, something had changed their course, or rather, superimposed itself upon their destination._

_And thus, as they descended upon their new world, Minerva would only discover the significance of this change once they returned to her in this new timeline._

_One which would change her path forevermore._


End file.
